This is an archive of past discussions about Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current main page. |
Archive 25 | ← | Archive 29 | Archive 30 | Archive 31 | Archive 32 | Archive 33 | → | Archive 35 |
The Signpost should write about... FWIW - a draft "ScienceNews template" (see copy below) has been created - a recent suggestion (see comments at "Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science#Is "ScienceNews template" useful - or not?") has been made that the template contents (at least in some form) may be a worthwhile ("one-time appearance") contribution to The Signpost - Comments Welcome - in any case - Enjoy! :) Drbogdan (talk) 06:52, 14 January 2020 (UTC)
Original template version
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NOTE: a newer version (hopefully improved to the better Wikipedia standards) of the template has now been created - and, if interested, may be viewed below and/or here => User:Drbogdan/ScienceFacts - Thanks again for all the earlier comments - newer Comments Welcome - Enjoy! :) Drbogdan (talk) 16:21, 17 January 2020 (UTC)
HIGHLIGHTS by Years (including 2000s); Breakthroughs; History; Outline; Timelines (Human, Life, Nature); Questions.
- Astronomers estimate[1] that there are as many as "One Septillion" (1024 or, 1 with 24 zeros) stars in the observable Universe – more stars (and earth-like planets) than all the grains of beach sand on planet Earth[2][3][4] – many more stars, at an estimated 10100, may be contained in a Universe (observed and unobserved) considered Inflationary.[5]
- Astronomers confirm[6] (as of July 24, 2024) => 7,026 exoplanets (in 4,949 exoplanet systems and 1007 multi-exoplanetary systems) – after studying only a very, very small portion of the starry sky.
- The NASA probes currently active on the planet Mars (as of November 9, 2024) are the following:
Perseverance rover & Ingenuity helicopter => 1324 sols (1360 days) (3 years, 265 days) (landed February 18, 2021).
Curiosity rover => 4359 sols (4478 days) (12 years, 95 days) (landed August 6, 2012).
(USA flag on Mars – Mars Weather: Perseverance*Curiosity*InSight – Mars rocks – Martians found?[7]).
- A spaceship from planet Earth speeding 165,000 miles an hour (as fast as our fastest one),[8] would take nearly 20,000 years[8][9] to travel beyond our Solar System to the nearest star Proxima Centauri – with no worthy place to land.
- Spaceship planet Earth is speeding about "One Million" miles an hour[10] through outer space and, along with the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy, is traveling toward Andromeda Galaxy. (WikiTalk)
- The Universe contains life – on planet Earth – at least – and – we are not alone – life abounds – wherever we are – with microorganisms – at the very minimum.[11]
- Biologists currently understand that microorganisms were the only known life forms present during the earliest 85% of time since the planet Earth was formed 4.54 billion years ago – Plants and Animals appear much more recently – in the latest 15% of time – Modern Humans, much more recently yet – in less than the latest 0.005% of time.
- Biologists have estimated that over 99%[12] of all species of life forms that have ever lived on planet Earth are now extinct. Further, the total number of living cells on the Earth currently is estimated to be 1030; the total number since the beginning of Earth as 1040, and the total number for the entire time of a habitable planet Earth as 1041.[13][14]
- Chemists have determined that all life forms on planet Earth are based on one particular chemical – with astronomical variations.[15][16]
- Physicists have estimated that there is about 1082 (1 with 82 zeros) atoms[17] in the observable Universe, and that additionally, at least 99.9999999%[18] of all the matter in the Universe, from the very small to the very large, is empty space.
References (CLICK "[show]" on the right)
(NOTE: If ads or paywall, *Click Archived version* or *CopyPaste link to new Browser tab*)
- ^ Staff (2020). "How many stars are there in the Universe?". European Space Agency. Archived from the original on January 17, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
- ^ Mackie, Glen (February 1, 2002). "To see the Universe in a Grain of Taranaki Sand". Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
- ^ Mack, Eric (19 March 2015). "There may be more Earth-like planets than grains of sand on all our beaches - New research contends that the Milky Way alone is flush with billions of potentially habitable planets -- and that's just one sliver of the universe". CNET. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- ^ T. Bovaird, T.; Lineweaver, C.H.; Jacobsen, S.K. (13 March 2015). "Using the inclinations of Kepler systems to prioritize new Titius–Bode-based exoplanet predictions". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 448 (4): 3608–3627. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv221. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- ^ Totani, Tomonori (February 3, 2020). "Emergence of life in an inflationary universe". Scientific Reports. 10 (1671): 1671. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-58060-0. PMC 6997386. PMID 32015390.
- ^ Staff (2020). "The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia - Catalog". The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
- ^ Staff (2020). "Martians on Mars found by the Curiosity rover". 360cities.net. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
- ^ a b Cofield, Calla (August 24, 2016). "How We Could Visit the Possibly Earth-Like Planet Proxima b". Space.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
- ^ Bogdan, Dr. Dennis (2020). "Calculation - Time to nearest star". LiveJournal. Archived from the original on August 21, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
- ^ Fraknoi, Andrew (2007). "How Fast Are You Moving When You Are Sitting Still?" (PDF). NASA. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
- ^ Kolata, Gina (June 14, 2012). "In Good Health? Thank Your 100 Trillion Bacteria". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
- ^ Novacek, Michael J. (November 8, 2014). "Prehistory's Brilliant Future". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
- ^ Overbye, Dennis (December 1, 2023). "Exactly How Much Life Is on Earth? - According to a new study, living cells outnumber stars in the universe, highlighting the deep, underrated link between geophysics and biology". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
- ^ Crockford, Peter W.; et al. (November 6, 2023). "The geologic history of primary productivity". Current Biology. 33 (21): P7741–4750.E5. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.040. PMID 37827153. Archived from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
- ^ Bogdan, Dr. Dennis (February 16, 2020). "The one particular chemical is Nucleic Acid - a basic chemical for all known life forms - in the form of DNA - and/or - RNA - that defines - by way of a particular genetic code sequence - all the astronomically diverse known life forms on Earth - all such known life forms are essentially a variation of this particular Nucleic Acid chemical that, at a very basic level, has been uniquely coded for a specific known life form". Dr. Dennis Bogdan.
- ^ Berg, J.M.; Tymoczko, J.L.; Stryer, L. (2002). "Chapter 5. DNA, RNA, and the Flow of Genetic Information". Book: Biochemistry. 5th edition. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
- ^ Baker, Harry (July 11, 2021). "How many atoms are in the observable universe?". Live Science. Archived from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
- ^ Sundermier, Ali (September 23, 2016). "99.9999999% of Your Body Is Empty Space". ScienceAlert. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
There is an open proposal to close Citizendium to editing. Of the site's four active editors, two agree with the proposal. – Teratix ₵ 09:33, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
@Smallbones: The WMF just released this video recapping the year of 2019 on Wikipedia, probably worth a mention somewhere. I do question the choice of upbeat classical music to score going over the Notre Dame fire... -Indy beetle (talk) 07:10, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
Possibly a record for overcitation? Draft:Computer_Forensic_Laboratory_(Hong_Kong_Customs_and_Excise_Department) Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 22:19, 5 February 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about... WP:MEDICINE has received some nice coverage in the UK version of WIRED about our various coronavirus articles. This might make a good addition to the next newsletter's "In the Media" section MeegsC (talk) 09:20, 9 February 2020 (UTC)
Coverage, SI Open Access site. I'm not seeing any gotchas for use at en.wiki/Commons, but this will be extremely useful. --Masem (t) 22:21, 25 February 2020 (UTC)
I'm surprised that I can't find any mention of that debate in the current version of the Signpost. The RfC was listed for a month at WP:CENT. Links (and my views, FWIW) are at User_talk:Whatamidoing_(WMF)#Holy ..., a conversation from a couple of weeks ago. I know that people who are smarter than me (everyone, basically, when it comes to understanding WP–WMF relations) believe that it's generally a good idea to let things go wrong first and then deal with it; the problem, in this case, is that unusually large sums of money (according to various comments) are going into a world-wide effort to convince a lot of people that they should stand up for their right to have whatever it is they're doing called "Wikipedia", whether it has anything to do with encyclopedias or not. Some people claim that we'll be fine, because the final decision will be up to the Board, and they'll make the right call ... but by the time they vote on it, so much money will have been spent in an effort to tip the scales that they may not, realistically, have a say in the matter. That's why the "let things go wrong first" strategy might be dangerous, for this issue, given the feelings expressed in the RfC (roughly 10-1 against, with a lot of anger and astonishment ... and there's no indication that the WMF is taking the RfC seriously). FWIW ... I don't actually have a position on the issue (except for my one-liner in the RfC), rebranding issues go way over my head ... my concern is the likely loss of editors, given what was said at the RfC. Also FWIW ... the Board issued a statement yesterday here. I'd characterize it as "unhelpful", but you be the judge. - Dank (push to talk) 17:43, 28 February 2020 (UTC)
"All offline (in-person) public events funded by Wikimedia Foundation grants must be cancelled or postponed until further notice" – m:Community Resources/COVID-19 Notice - Evad37 [talk] 03:49, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
This article includes a county-level map showing the percentage of households in the United States who edit Wikipedia while not logged in, as well as other county-level data including political, religious, and income information and population density and broadband availability. It also has an interactive "by year" timeline of IP edits per county.
It also includes worldwide information about how many households edit from various countries without being logged in. It's no surprise that English-speaking countries dominate, but some countries with large populations such as China and Russia also show up in the middle tier. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs) 22:08, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
Smallbones(smalltalk) 18:37, 25 February 2020 (UTC)
I'm unable to comprehend the Github data, but I went ahead and created a map for the U.S. state of North Carolina (where I live) based off of the US map Mandiberg created with his data:
I'm also noticing a some trend which Mandiberg does not explicitly observe. Namely, that there are several liberal/Democratic leaning places in the south where there is a a dearth of Wikipedia activity, not just conservative/Republican places (One of the hypotheses Mandiberg considers is that low-editing happens in conservative areas and may be due to conservative distaste for Wikipedia's historical left-lean and the existence of Conservapedia). These Democratic areas, such as north-eastern North Carolina are mostly rural and have significant black/African American populations. Historically, black Americans since the 1960s have voted mostly for liberal/Democratic candidates. The lack of editing in the "Black Belt" thus can be used to demonstrate the hypothesis that the political leaning has less to with editing activity than low population density (one of Mandiberg's observations is that low activity correlates with low density, but he seems mostly concerned with the overwhelmingly-white Western US). This North Carolina map is also of some more interest to me because while the cluster of the worst counties for editing in the northeast are very rural and have significant black populations, they have also been economically weak for years and are shrinking. For the sake of considering Wikipedia:Systemic bias, it may be important to consider that we might have problems on African-American figures or the places they live due to this low editing activity. -Indy beetle (talk) 23:57, 26 February 2020 (UTC)
Here is a copy of my complaint about Russian Wikipedia at Meta "Universal Code of Conduct" talk. You may find it useful for Signpost (or not). It describes global Wikimedia issues and has a link to Signpost. He original link is m:Talk:Universal Code of Conduct/Discussions/Russian community. The text is as follows:
The problem with Russian Wikipedia is *not* with "codes of conduct". Such "codes" are not needed, because all the necessary rules are already exist. The problem with Russian Wikipedia is that there is a group of administrators that systematically insult and harass other users, sometimes treating regular editors like vandals or spammers (no one cares when they insult spammers, but insulting regular editors is a big problem). This is not a sole Russian Wikipedia problem, it's a global Wikimedia problem that is very hard to handle. I call it a "czar problem". We may take an example of English Wikinews where there are 2 or 3 "czars" who make normal participation in English Wikinews almost impossible for regular editors. And Wikimedia Foundation seemed to be unable to solve that before "Framgate". The "Framgate" looks like the WMF is finally able to solve such issues. The behaviour of aggressive admins have 2 effects: 1) notable hatred of general public towards Wikipedia 2) excessive deletionism that distracts newcomers. These 2 points are in full contradiction to Wikimedia movement values. Arbitration Committee of Russian Wikipedia is unable to solve the issues partially because some of the arbiters are part of the problem. "Blue wall of silence" problem also is present. Aggressive group members sometimes say that they don't care about Wikimedia Movement values, they only want strict rules. This is also a total contradiction to Five Pillars of Wikipedia. As Russian Arbitration Committee is unable to solve this, something like "office action" is needed. How will WMF solve the problem with Tatar Wikipedia where a bureaucrat has indefinitely blocked Farhad Fatkullin because of personal conflict? No hope for "Tatar Arbitration" there, only hope on WMF. Russian aggressive "admin group" consist only of several people, I think no more than ~15 people (there are non-admins also, I simplify the term). Those who suffer are thousands of editors and millions/billions of readers. Efforts to promote Wikimedia values to general public to make Wikipedia bigger and better are severely damaged by this situation. Many people flee from Russian Wikipedia and later criticize it in many public places. --Ssr (talk) 10:53, 20 March 2020 (UTC)
--ssr (talk) 11:58, 20 March 2020 (UTC)
Wikipedia talk:STiki#STiki, sadly, has likely reached EoL. Mark Schierbecker (talk) 23:13, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about... kosboot (talk) 19:36, 23 January 2020 (UTC) What was the 6,000,000th article? - kosboot (talk) 19:36, 23 January 2020 (UTC)
Six Million Articles! Wikipedia has officially reached the six-million mark. This is quite the milestone and should be discussed, as well as a reveal about what the six millionth article is!
Wikipedia has reached the six-million-article milestone, six million articles that anyone can edit. And the six-millionth article is...
Suggestion by Plankhouse0 (talk) 21:17, 23 January 2020 (UTC)
I don't know whether you are commenting upon it but I noticed we have had an unusually high number of successful RfAs in the past two months while at the same time as we have 3 arbitration cases going on regarding admin conduct. Make of that what you will, but the coincidence seems striking to me. I guess we are going through a process of the community realizing we need more active admins but wanting more influence over how they, at least longterm admins, conduct themselves. Liz Read! Talk! 23:55, 25 January 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about...
I have created a section at the Wikipedia:Community bulletin board which compiles a whole variety of events, edit-a-thons, contests, etc etc, taking place around Wikipedia, mostly at WikiProjects, but also elsewhere as well.
I was wondering if we could provide the same information, here at the Signpost page? If so, let me know where, and I will copy and paste this compilation of items. I am proposing this at the suggestion of Andrybak. I appreciate any help, guidance, or input. Please ping me if you reply. thanks! Sm8900 (talk) 14:33, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
It may be also interesting for you that we at Russian community have revived the Vikivestnik (Викивестник), literally "Wiki Herald" — Wikipedia/Wikimedia news bulletin in Russian language. It existed since 2008 in Russian Wikipedia as ru:ВП:ВЕСТ and was abandoned in 2015 and we have recently revived it at Russian Wikinews as n:ru:Викивестник. We use some material from Signpost, translating summaries. In 2016, an user created a project called "Signpost-digest", ru:Проект:Сайнпост-дайджест, a short summary of Signpost, but it was also abandoned after about 10 issues. --ssr (talk) 06:58, 21 March 2020 (UTC)
Just wanted to share some additional COVID-related coverage:
---Another Believer (Talk) 03:49, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about how Wikidata has been proposed as a workaround for an article deemed "pure and unadulterated evil". See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of people with coronavirus disease 2019. ☆ Bri (talk) 20:29, 2 April 2020 (UTC)
https://news.sky.com/story/trump-gets-seoul-population-wrong-by-28-million-after-boasting-he-knows-south-korea-better-than-anybody-11966163 https://twitter.com/simonmaginn/status/1245340399348133891?s=20 I have noted the date but it appears genuine. It's a good joke, if not. Cavrdg (talk) 13:35, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
With libraries being closed due to the quarantine, it's more difficult to supply references where needed. Good time for an article drawing our attention to under-utilized on-line resources? Vagabond nanoda (talk) 19:45, 6 April 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about...
In the first time in our (as in Wikipedia's) history we are actually living (and writing about) events that have a truly global scale that will have repercussions decades (if not 100's of years) from now. Every article we have related to this is far more important and significant than any article we have ever written before, both from a historical as well as contemporary viewpoint. What we say will have a very real impact on people living. We must all ensure that disinformation is not allowed to be expressed here, and we must expose it when it occurs. We must ensure that our readers are not only informed about the virus, but about those who would (and/or have) mislead them. Now we actually are important, in a way we have never been before. What we write here will be of historical importance, both as an example of how society dealt with this crisis, and a record of it.Slatersteven (talk) 13:55, 5 April 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about the tropical cyclone WikiProject for its October 2020 edition. The project was formally started on October 5, 2005, in the midst of the active 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The WikiProject standardized the many season, storm, and science articles about tropical cyclones, spawning 155 featured articles, 70 featured lists, 135 A-class articles, and 986 good article (as of today, it changes rapidly). There are 2,704 articles in the entire tropical cyclone project, meaning 49.77% of all articles in the project are a GA or better (just six good articles away from a 50/50 GA+/overall articles in the project ratio). By the 15th anniversary of the project in October, the project will likely be on month 8 (stuck inside), writing furiously to distract from the ongoing disaster around us. Indeed, even right now, members of the project were busy about Cyclone Harold, which yesterday and earlier today struck the South Pacific island of Vanuatu as one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded.
So the many tropical cyclone editors are busy these days. We have formed our own community here among editors, and engage regular with other tropical cyclone communities, such as on Facebook or Storm2k (a web-based tropical cyclone forum). I think our project could be an interesting one to interview for our 15 year anniversary in October. I hope anyone who comes across this message is safe and healthy ^_^ ♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 16:35, 6 April 2020 (UTC)
@Hurricanehink: fix ping, sorry. --Puddleglum2.0(How's my driving?) 23:06, 9 April 2020 (UTC)
Would it be worth a mention that every single article of the 11 that featured in the DYK section on April Fools Day received enough views to make it onto WP:DYKSTATS? It is very rare (and I don't recall it ever happening before) that every article in a set gains 5,000+ views, let alone an 11 article set. The C of E God Save the Queen! (talk) 18:54, 2 April 2020 (UTC)
Hi! The Guild of Copy Editors would like to ask if you could share in the next Signpost, perhaps as a "brief note," the announcement that in May we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of our copy-editing drives, one of our main tasks. During that decade we have reduced the backlog of articles tagged as needing copy editing from 8,323 to just 272, with the oldest tagged articles being from January. If you have questions, the best place to take them would be the talk page for the GOCE coordinators. Cheers, Tdslk (talk) 23:37, 19 April 2020 (UTC)
@Puddleglum2.0: you can certainly write such a report or do an interview. Just mention that you are an active member of the Guild in a brief paragraph between the byline and the lede. (Or I could write it.). If you wanted to do this as a "Community view" piece, which parts of the community tend to write up themselves, it could be even less formal. Smallbones(smalltalk) 02:49, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
Like JSTOR, Project MUSE contains digitized versions of scholarly literature. From an email this morning: "More than 80 of MUSE's participating publishers have temporarily made all or some of their content freely available on the Project MUSE platform, in response to the crucial need for remote access to reliable, vetted teaching and research materials during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Over 25,000 books and 300 journals are now available to any user worldwide, with no restrictions on access or usage. MUSE has also made available tools to help libraries with discovery of the free resources." - kosboot (talk) 14:13, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
The Croatian Wiki case seems to be nearing closure-- will definitely need coverage when it does. Eddie891 Talk Work 13:20, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
HathiTrust has created an Emergency Temporary Access Service https://www.hathitrust.org/ETAS-Description which allows people to access some material when the paper copies are unavailable. On paper it sounds great, but the process sounds so bureaucratic that I suspect only the most desperate will avail themselves of the service. - kosboot (talk) 18:17, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about the Ukrainian government (Foreign ministry) planning to mass-edit wikipedias jointly with Wikimedia Ukraine. Ministry's English message: "MFA Launches Mega Campaign To Saturate Wikipedia With Unbiased Information On Ukraine and the World". Jimbo Wales' comment was requested at his talk page. --ssr (talk) 20:12, 22 April 2020 (UTC)
Because of the Covid-19 issue, JSTOR has become open to all until June 30, 2020. No login needed: http://www.universitytimes.ie/2020/03/jstor-makes-database-accessible-to-the-public/?doing_wp_cron=1584647560.9826989173889160156250. kosboot (talk) 20:20, 19 March 2020 (UTC)
@Indy Beetle, Liz, and Kosboot: - if anybody could sort this out, it sounds like it's good for at least 2 paragraphs in News & Notes, perhaps much more. If you want to start it please let us know on the newsroom talk page. Smallbones(smalltalk) 18:46, 20 March 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about the various ongoing Wikichallenges. I know of the The 50,000 Destubbing Challenge and the WikiProject United States 50,000 challenge that are currently active. A fuller list an be developed by reviewing {{The 100,000 Challenge}} and Category:Wikipedia article challenges ☆ Bri (talk) 18:27, 22 April 2020 (UTC)
For NN, http://www.publicbooks.org/public-books-database/ compiles a list of publishers who have opened their collections in part or whole during the pandemic. czar 12:04, 4 May 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about... Now that most Wikimedia activities are being held online, geographical distance is no longer a hurdle to attending open chapter meetings/user groups all over the world. Might someone want to compile a running list/calendar of such activities? kosboot (talk) 13:10, 14 May 2020 (UTC)
kosboot Perhaps it belongs in Wikipedia:Meetup/Calendar which currently lacks online events. I suspect it's rather skimpy even on last year's in person meetings. I guess making it effective would require first getting some of the major chapters to list their events there. Jim.henderson (talk) 01:55, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
Larry Sanger's upset again [2]. I'd normally put this in ITM without any question, but it is Fox News, and considering it reviews a lengthy blog post by Sanger perhaps we can do something more with it. -Indy beetle (talk) 02:30, 22 May 2020 (UTC)
I have just produced a new free magazine that gives tips for photographers in lockdown. It encourages photographers to contribute to Wikipedia and to Commons. Each issue will have a guest spread on another Wikipedian's work. The link is on my user page User:Charlesjsharp. Charlesjsharp (talk) 13:57, 4 May 2020 (UTC)
Mention of Andorra: https://aux.avclub.com/tiny-andorra-has-two-monarchs-for-just-77-000-people-1843578046 ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 18:37, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
You might want to mention this Slate article:
Thanks! ---Another Believer (Talk) 18:30, 27 May 2020 (UTC)
Apparently the Canadian government doesn't like it when their employees edit Wikipedia. It would be great if someone could find the original research report. -Indy beetle (talk) 18:45, 3 June 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should feature WP:TRUMPPOV. It's a really good and expansively written essay. Thanks, Thanoscar21talk, contribs 00:04, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
In case The Signpost shares newly created WikiProjects, or plans to cover the George Floyd / Black Lives Movement demonstrations in some way, I've just created WikiProject Black Lives Matter for interested editors. Thanks, ---Another Believer (Talk) 21:32, 2 June 2020 (UTC)
PS - I should also note, Wiki Loves Pride is ongoing. Thanks! --Another Believer (Talk) 21:32, 2 June 2020 (UTC)
Although it's not strictly about Wikipedia, I thought people who read The Signpost are likely to be interested in coverage of the Internet Archive's recent legal case. Sources: NYTimes, here. Blythwood (talk) 05:10, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/wikipedia-george-floyd-neutrality.html ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 22:29, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
The Lawfare Podcast: Ryan Merkley on Why Wikipedia Works; this is the sort of stuff I listen to while I scrub dishes. If there's interest, I can instead listen, take notes, and write something up. Chris Troutman (talk) 17:35, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
briefly, see phabricator task and public incident documentation. Too technologically advanced for me, but perhaps someone could summarize? Eddie891 Talk Work 19:21, 14 June 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about in the media blurb: Bayard Rustin was a key figure in the civil rights and gay rights movements https://aux.avclub.com/bayard-rustin-was-a-key-figure-in-the-civil-rights-and-1843990779 ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 18:48, 14 June 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about a new pre-print (not yet published but currently under peer review) by yours truly analyzing Wikipedia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Madcoverboy (talk) 14:03, 17 June 2020 (UTC)
WikiJournal of Medicine, a peer-reviewed open access journal hosted in Wikiversity will be accepted into Scopus. OhanaUnitedTalk page 22:36, 18 June 2020 (UTC)
Could The Signpost clarify what the "rebrand / rename" topic is about? I could use an introduction. DePiep (talk) 21:36, 28 June 2020 (UTC)
Not sure what, but The Wikipedia Library just got a pretty substantial update. Could be worth covering Eddie891 Talk Work 11:46, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
Citizendium over? Eddie891 Talk Work 00:59, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about... Olive Morris, who was recently featured on a google doodle, meaning that her wikipedia page got checked almost 300,000 times on 26 June! Mujinga (talk) 11:14, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
Wikilambda, a proposed Wikimedia project, has been approved by the Board of Trustees. This topic was previously covered by the Signpost in Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-04-26/In focus. The announcement was made in the mailing list and on Meta. --Yair rand (talk) 18:02, 2 July 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about the new tool "The Book". I want to inform the English community about my new project "The Book". This project shows the Wikipedia like a old lexicon in a multi-column page. You can turn to the next or previous page. All article are in alphabetic order and "The Book" shows only the first text section and the first image. Also you can go to a specific title or random page. It is in 300+ languages available.
It is fun to explore our Wikipedia with this new way. You will find many interessting articles on your way in "The Book". --sk (talk) 15:14, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
The WMF announced that they'll be moving the code review and CI systems to GitLab, without first having a public discussion on it with the developer community. The (completely predictable) outcry is taking place on mw:Talk:Wikimedia Release Engineering Team/GitLab. --Yair rand (talk) 21:40, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about... New Research on the Effects of Thanking Others on Wikipedia(s).
CAT Lab partnered with Arabic, German, Persian and Polish language Wikipedias to answer whether using the thanks button could increase participation, in two new studies.
In a field experiment that organized experienced Wikipedians to thank thousands of editors, we found that receiving a Thanks increased two week retention by 2 percentage points on average. Receiving thanks also causes recipients to send 43% more thanks on average (preprint [3]).
A partner study looked at the effects on senders of giving Thanks. While we did not find an effect, this could be because many volunteers already felt emotionally drained from their efforts on Wikipedia and weren't able to complete the study. Because of this, we made valuable discoveries about who spends time supporting others, how they think about the intentions of newcomers, and how they feel about their work (preprint [4]).
Maximilianklein(CS) (talk) 22:13, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about... the current discussion on WP:COIN about the paid editing company known as Wikiprofessionals, and how they might be related to other sockpuppeteers. SuperGoose007 (Honk!) 19:05, 10 July 2020 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of sex symbols (4th nomination) might be worth mentioning. This page had existed since 2004 (with a brief interruption, being recreated in 2006 shortly after a previous AfD deletion). Because of the page's large revision history, the deletion required steward rights. Around the time of the deletion nomination, the list had over 1000 entries and 1446 citations. (Not going to cover it myself, as I !voted in the discussion.) Regards, HaeB (talk) 08:22, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
I don't know if you could use this, but I've noticed a trend at AFD, on articles I didn't know existed, or that we even allow. Since the outcome at AFD is up to the community to decide - often more so than Wikipedia rules or guidelines - these things go both ways. Along the lines of WP:NOTNEWS, we seem to be reporting news events, anyway. Please see Category:Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign and Category:Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign. We keep updated/current events articles listing the endorsements both have received, and continue to receive. Shouldn't such lists be on an individual candidate's website, not Wikipedia? We have articles covering their individual rallies, fairly quickly following same. Some of them are up for AFD. I believe I saw (somewhere) one of each candidate that had been deleted through AFD, but it looks like which direction that swings, depends on who can amass the most "Keep" votes. Democracy is great ... but is Wikipedia being used a freebie campaign tool? — Maile (talk) 22:12, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
"How volunteers created Wikipedia’s world-beating Covid-19 coverage"
---Another Believer (Talk) 22:35, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
A new research found 5 cases of peer-reviewed papers plagiarizing Wikipedia articles.[6] OhanaUnitedTalk page 19:50, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
Today The Intercept on Talk:Kamala_Harris#It_got_noticed. Chris Troutman (talk) 02:59, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
A member of WikiProject Palaeontology discovered a hoax article Mustelodon. This is the longest-lived hoax to be documented on English Wikipedia, at nearly 15 years from creation to discovery. I wrote a small snippet for the Tree of Life Newsletter for this month, and you might find it interesting enough to include in the Signpost. For more info, see the talk page at WP:PALAEO here. Enwebb (talk) 13:53, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
"Covid-19 is one of Wikipedia's biggest challenges ever. Here's how the site is handling it." The Washington Post:
---Another Believer (Talk) 19:23, 7 August 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about the death of Wikipedia editor Jerome Kohl; details at Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians/2020#Jerome Kohl and at User talk:Jerome Kohl#In memoriam. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 05:04, 8 September 2020 (UTC)
Just a heads up. We have a ton of users who would likely be interested in speaking about the project. It is a record-breaking hurricane season after all, and there are some changes going on. Hurricanehink mobile (talk) 18:31, 19 September 2020 (UTC)
That's a short little summary, hope that establishes why it's special. I could've gone into there being more than 100 TFA's, or that weather agencies use Wikipedia, such as their track maps, or sometimes even the information mentioned. ♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 23:06, 19 September 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} The Signpost should write about this highly upvoted Reddit post assertion that the Scots language Wikipedia is largely the work of one person who doesn't know Scots and is just using a dictionary to "translate" from the English Wikipedia.
{{done}} Worth a read at ANI [8]. Jimbo's been involved. -Indy beetle (talk) 06:48, 27 August 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} Dumping this here for now until the next ITM draft is created [9]. -Indy beetle (talk) 00:33, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} The Signpost should write about... recent developments on the Door County, Wisconsin article; a good example of tall poppy syndrome. It might also help illustrate the [10] US map of editor frequency; that Wikipedia has an inherent bias towards and against certain areas; one area in particular is reflected in the username of a significant editor.--Epiphyllumlover (talk) 16:48, 6 September 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} There are big troubles in Russian Wikinews as described in English here --ssr (talk) 19:43, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} pt:Wikipédia:Votações/Necessidade de registo para editar a Wikipédia lusófona
Currently leaning towards requiring registration to edit mainspace, but keeping access open to Talk and Help spaces. FYI czar 02:41, 13 September 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} If you though Scots Wikipedia had it bad... –MJL ‐Talk‐☖ 05:14, 16 September 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} The Signpost should write about "the uptick in Wikimedia editing" because of the pandemic. This was brought to my attention by someone on the Wikidata Telegram channel: https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-projects/contributing/edits/normal%7Cbar%7C2-year%7C~total%7Cmonthly - I don't want to be the one to write about it, but if Signpost staff has access to someone who likes to analyze graphs and user stats, it could be a nice small article or notice. kosboot (talk) 13:48, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} The Signpost should write about https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/sep/18/wikipedia-edits-have-massive-impact-on-tourism-say-economists ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:38, 18 September 2020 (UTC)
The latest episode of the Reply All podcast covers Psiĥedelisto's effort to get this DYK on the Main Page and the reason he spends his time on Wikipedia lately. Nardog (talk) 03:50, 20 September 2020 (UTC)
Lyles, Taylor (September 23, 2020). "Wikipedia is getting its first desktop redesign in 10 years". The Verge. Retrieved September 24, 2020. czar 02:47, 24 September 2020 (UTC)
{{done}} The second edition of the m:Coolest Tool Award is looking for nominations.
Tools play an essential role for the Wikimedia projects, and so do the many volunteer developers who experiment with new ideas and develop and maintain local and global solutions to support the Wikimedia communities. The Coolest Tool Award aims to recognize and celebrate the coolest tools in a variety of categories.
The awarded projects will be announced and showcased in a virtual ceremony in November. Deadline to submit nominations is October 14, 2020.
The organizing committee would appreciate spreading the word about the nomination process to highlight the work of our technical contributors. -- for the 2020 Coolest Tool Academy: --JHernandez (WMF) (talk) 10:10, 25 September 2020 (UTC)
could be interesting... Eddie891 Talk Work 22:29, 1 October 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about datasets on Commons. Maybe everyone knew about this except me, but just a few days ago I found out that datasets are on Commons and have their own namespace, Data:. I'm not the person to talk about this, but maybe someone super familiar with Commons and its datasets can talk about them. kosboot (talk) 13:30, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
Hi, we know that Wikipedia's birthday will be on 15th Jan, and we have predicted for a while that the thousand millionth edit will come in the first quarter of 2021. But one of the less obvious effects of COVID19 has been an uptick in editing, and that has brought forward the date when we see our thousand millionth edit. Looking at WP:Time Between Edits the thousand millionth edit could be in the same week as Wikipedia's birthday. ϢereSpielChequers 13:38, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for this @WereSpielChequers:. Wikipedia started about January 15, 2001 and January 15, 2021 will mark our 20th birthday. The 1000 millionth edit coming about the same time makes it even more special. BTW does anybody mind saying the "billionth edit"? There's book coming out in a week or so called "Wikipedia @ 20" which celebrates the birthday with 22 fairly academic chapters on just about everything Wikipedia. We'll be celebrating the *book* with (probably) 3 articles: I'll be doing a book review (email me if you want to help), an interview with the 2 editors - Joseph Reagle and Jackie Koerner, and Reagle's 1st chapter (from the final draft because of license restrictions). WSC - if you want to write-up 2-3 paragraphs for News and notes on the birthday + billion edits that would be great. We should also have something for the January issue where editors can add something, e.g. "How I first found out about Wikipedia (or my first edit on Wikipedia) and why I'm still editing". If that sounds like a good idea, let me know and I'll set up a page for the comments. If it doesn't sound like a good idea, think of a better one! and then let me know! Smallbones(smalltalk) 02:33, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
The Wikimedian of the Year will be announced tomorrow. I think it's something that the Signpost and its readers might find interesting. I'm happy to connect the recipient with someone if they'd like to reach out (not that I'm needed!). CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 17:52, 14 October 2020 (UTC)
It seems like WMF is going forward with this: [12] --Rschen7754 20:22, 18 October 2020 (UTC)
Russian regional government of Republic of Tatarstan officially offers money for Wikipedia editing. Here is a Wikinews story in Russian, current offer is worth 1 million rubles (~13000 USD) for about 150 articles in Tatar, Russian and English, the process is headed by Wikimedian of the year 2018 Farhad Fatkullin, you can ask him directly in English, user:Frhdkazan. --ssr (talk) 13:25, 22 October 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about the problems with blocking IP addresses. Maybe the time is right with new discussion about IP masking. I have a draft at User:Bri/Misapplication of blocking that would need to be refreshed for current stats and examples. ☆ Bri (talk) 14:55, 22 October 2020 (UTC)
The Signpost should write about Wikipedia @ 20--Ipigott (talk) 08:45, 23 October 2020 (UTC)
Not sure if this is on your radar, but there was also m:Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard/October 2020 - Proposed Bylaws changes which would greatly affect how community board members are selected. Rschen7754 16:47, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
The New York Times has a nice article on an editor's attempt to add citations to the article sichuan pepper. (The editor is apparently User:Mozby.) But unlike most newspaper coverage of WP, this one talks about how important it is to engage with the Talk page as a way to discuss research. A very nice quote from the article: "...visit a Talk page or two to understand what research is. It’s not just looking online for stuff; it’s a process of assessment, of re-searching through what you’ve found to determine what’s superfluous, what’s missing and what requires thought. The nakedness of this process on Talk pages makes it accessible. Professional researchers can be precious about our work, but research is a skill we can and should all acquire, given the abundance of information and misinformation mixed up at our fingertips." - kosboot (talk) 15:45, 25 October 2020 (UTC)